October 21, 2014 - Hurricane Ana (02C) off Hawaii

Hurricane Ana (02C) off Hawaii

On October 17, 2014 Hurricane Ana was brushing the Big Island of Hawaii with its outer rain bands as NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard to capture this true-color image.

At 21:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time), the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) reported that Tropical Storm Ana had strengthened to a hurricane as it approached Hawaii. It’s location at that time was 16.4 North latitude and 155.2 West longitude, or about 230 miles (365 km) south of Hilo, Hawaii. It was moving west northwest at 14 mph (22 km/h) with wind speeds of 75 mph (120 km/h), making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

This image was captured at 23:25 UTC (1:25 p.m. HAST), a little more than two hours after that report. At that time, Ana’s bringing surging surf, strong winds, heavy rains and flooding to parts of the Big Island. Originally headed directly towards Hawaii, the storm appeared to be following the track of Tropical Storm Iselle’s, which made landfall on the Big Island, in August of this year. Hurricane Ana fortunately skirted the island chain, passing only about 165 miles (266 km) southwest of Honolulu before weakening and heading away from land.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 10/27/2014
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC